Allen v. David, 20169.

• Citation: 334 F.2d 592
• Decision Date: 20 August 1964
• Docket Number: No. 20169.,20169.
• Parties: S. B. ALLEN et al., Appellants, v. W. Lewis DAVID et al., Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

334 F.2d 592 (1964)

S. B. ALLEN et al., Appellants, v. W. Lewis DAVID et al., Appellees.

No. 20169.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

July 16, 1964.

Rehearing Denied August 20, 1964.

Leon Jaworski, M. W. Parse, Jr., Houston, Tex., for appellants.

Woodrow Seals, U. S. Atty., William B. Butler, James R. Gough, Jack Shepherd, Asst. U. S. Attys., Houston, Tex., for appellees.

Before HUTCHESON, RIVES and GEWIN, Circuit Judges.

GEWIN, Circuit Judge.

This is an appeal from the judgment of a district court¹ concluding that it lacked proper jurisdiction to adjudicate the question of whether the defendants' (appellees') actions concerning the cancellation of the plaintiffs' (appellants') farm acreage allotments and recall of their marketing quotas were within the authority granted them as functionaries of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) of the Department of Agriculture under the Agricultural Adjustment Act (Act) of 1938 as amended (Public Law 430, Seventy-Fifth Congress, 52 Stat. 31; 7 U.S.C.A. § 1281 et seq.), and regulations issued pursuant thereto under authority granted in Section 375 (7 U.S.C.A. § 1375) and 7 C.F.R. 730.1021(3), as amended. The district court consented to hear the case, which was filed as a class action pursuant to F.R.Civ.P. 23, and which sought injunctive relief. The complaint based jurisdiction on 28 U.S.C.A. §§ 1331, 1337. After the cause was heard, the district court duly entered its findings of fact and conclusions of law.²

Briefly stated, the facts are these: The plaintiffs are Texas rice farmers whose 1962 farm acreage allotments and marketing quotas were cancelled by the defendants.³ They attack this cancellation and assert that: (1) such act was wholly beyond the power of the defendants to effect; (2) that substantial unwarranted penalties were assessed against them as a result of said cancellation; and (3) that they were unable to market their crop for the year in question because of the unauthorized recall of their marketing quota cards.

Pursuant to the provisions of the Act, a functional scheme is provided commencing with the Secretary of Agriculture. The Secretary is required to determine a national acreage allotment for rice after determining the national marketing quota based upon the relationship between "total supply" of the commodity in question for the year and "normal supply", and to apportion the acreage allotment among the states. Apportionment of state acreage allotment among the counties is a function of the State Committee, subject to certain authorized reserves. The county allotment is apportioned by the County Committee pursuant to detailed regulations. The State Committee has certain supervisory powers over the County Committee. The County Review Committee is authorized to review the actions and decisions of the County Committee. Fulford v. Forman, 245 F.2d 145 (5 Cir. 1957).⁴ The important and broad functions required of the Secretary to administer and enforce the law make it necessary that the Secretary prescribe such regulations as are authorized and needful to the enforcement of the statutory scheme.⁵

None of the plaintiffs planted acreage to rice in excess of their original acreage allotments and quotas as fixed by the County Committee initially. However, upon receipt of information by the ASCS to the effect that there was an indication that applicable regulations had been violated and improper practices might have been employed by some applicants with regard to obtaining their allotments, an audit of rice allotments was initiated. The practices referred to concerned whether certain rice producers who had certified to the ASCS that they were engaged in the production of rice were, in fact, so engaged.⁶ Based on the auditors' reports as interpreted by the general counsel, the defendants, pursuant to 7 CFR 1021(e),⁷ initiated the actions about which complaint is herein made.

Certain creditors of the plaintiffs also petitioned the district court for leave to intervene. The district court found that the interests of these creditors were adequately represented by the plaintiffs and denied them leave to intervene. These creditors, now appellant-lien creditors, have assigned the district court's refusal to grant their petition as error, thereby also placing that issue before us.

The district court concluded that the plaintiffs had been properly notified of the change in their farm acreage allotment within the meaning of the Act. 7 U.S.C.A. § 1362 (see f.n. 1). The State Committee notified the County Committee, and the County Committee notified the farmers.⁸

Actions by the County Committee are subject to administrative review by a Review Committee pursuant to Section 1363 of the Act, and to further review by either the United States District Court or any State Court of general jurisdiction. 7 U.S.C.A. §§ 1365, 1366.⁹ The district court determined that the remedy provided by the foregoing sections was exclusive, and that, in view of 7 U.S.C.A. § 1367¹⁰ it was wholly without power to grant the relief prayed for inasmuch as the plaintiffs had failed to properly pursue the remedy provided for by the Act.¹¹

The plaintiffs assign the holding of the district court as error with respect to its interpretation of the Act and the powers granted defendants thereunder; and further, in their reply brief, contend that basic federal jurisdiction is present and that the trial court erred in not ruling to this effect. We are thus presented with issues relating to a judicial interpretation of the Act as well as issues relating to the existence of federal jurisdiction under the Act. By approaching the matter of jurisdiction first, it is unnecessary for us to reach the problems concerning our interpretation of the Act and the validity of the defendants' actions. To put it another way, we agree with the findings of the district court regarding its lack of jurisdiction, and therefore it is not necessary to consider the issues presented which are not related to the matter of jurisdiction.

The specter of jurisdictional deficiency has haunted these proceedings throughout, and while the plaintiffs have attempted to steer a course through its murky waters, we are unable to follow their theories and contentions. Any constitutional questions concerning due process were laid to rest when the trial court, upon plaintiffs' own motion, ordered the "due process" allegation stricken from their complaint.

There are no personal rights of property created in the plaintiffs by the Act which would allow them to recover in a suit against governmental functionaries. The Agricultural Act is a public law, not a private law; therefore no vested rights may be obtained under it. Dighton v. Coffman, 178 F.Supp. 114 (D.C.E.D.Ill.1959), aff'd 279 F.2d 497 (7 Cir. 1960); Bishop v. Review Committee, Venue V, Com. Stab. Serv., 298 F.2d 386 (8 Cir. 1962). The chief purpose of the Act is to control the production of certain agricultural products, including rice. 7 U.S.C.A. §§ 1282, 1304; Fulford v. Forman, 245 F.2d 145 (5 Cir. 1957); Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111, 130, 63 S.Ct. 82, 87 L.Ed. 122, 138. Since the Act and its attendant regulations do not vest in the plaintiffs any legally recognizable rights other than those specifically enumerated therein; and since administrative avenues have been carefully laid out along which an aggrieved party may travel while seeking redress, we must reason that the plaintiffs choosing not to travel the road to administrative review as provided for them, have placed before the court a controversy over which we lack the power to render a binding decision under the facts and in the circumstances here involved.¹²

It may be that if the acts complained of are in fact, ultra vires, and beyond any powers granted to the defendants under the Act; then the plaintiffs are the victims of a simple action ex delicto, which may be maintained against the defendants individually much the same as against any other tort-feasor. Such a theory however, lends no support to the assertion of basic federal jurisdiction in this cause. See Goltra v. Weeks, 271 U.S. 536, 544, 46 S.Ct. 613, 616, 70 L.Ed. 1074, wherein the Court stated:

"Neither they government agents nor the government which they represent could trespass upon the property of another, and it is well settled that they may be stayed in their unlawful proceeding by a court of competent jurisdiction, even though the United States for whom they profess to act is not a party and can not be made one. By reason of their illegality, their acts or threatened acts are personal and derive no official justification from their doing them in asserted agency for the government." (Emphasis added.)

We do not take the position that either the Act or the regulations pursuant to the Act are simple. We regard them as complicated, lengthy and difficult. See Fulford v. Forman, 245 F.2d 145, 149. However, complexity and difficulty are not synonymous with arbitrariness, unreasonableness or invalidity. Review Committee Venue VII v. Wiley, 8 Cir., 275 F.2d 264, 272.

The language of the Act imports to us that an exclusiveness of jurisdiction and review is lodged within the framework of the administrating agency. Weir v. United States, 310 F.2d 149, 156, 157 (8 Cir. 1962); Miller v. United States, 242 F.2d 392, 395 (6 Cir. 1957); Corbin v. United States, 279 F.2d 431, 432 (6 Cir. 1960); Corpstein v. United States, 262 F.2d 200, 201 (10 Cir. 1958), Cert. denied, 359 U.S. 966, 79 S.Ct. 877, 3 L.Ed.2d 834; Rigby v. Rasmussen, 275 F.2d 861, 865 (10 Cir. 1960); Donaldson v. United States, 264 F.2d 804, 805, 806 (6 Cir. 1959); United States v. Jeffcoat, 272 F.2d 266, 271 (4 Cir. 1959); United States v. Lillard, 143 F.Supp. 113, 119 (U.S.D.C.W.D.Mo., S.D., 1956); Paul v. United States, 222 F.Supp. 102, 106 (U.S.D.C.E.D. North Carolina, 1963); United States v. Bonderer, 139 F.Supp. 391, 395, 396 (U.S.D.C.W.D.Mo., W.D. 1...